


dating

by sorryiforgotmyusername



Category: Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Nonbinary Lake, bisexual jesse cosay, idk if troy has a tag, infinity train book two spoilers, nonbinary lake (infinity train), rated teen because of swears, spoiler alert: they aren't dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:14:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25724182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorryiforgotmyusername/pseuds/sorryiforgotmyusername
Summary: jesse and lake talk about their relationship (they also talk about arson. a little bit)
Relationships: Jesse Cosay & Lake | Mirror Tulip
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	dating

**Author's Note:**

> this is my interpretation of lake and jesse's relationship post train, hope you enjoy! writing banter is fun

“Alright, so a little arson? Can I do a little arson?”

“No, Lake, you can’t do any arson.”

Lake looks at me, fake pouting. “Man, that sucks.”

“What can I say? It’s the American legal system, not me”, I reply. “Not my fault arson is illegal”

“You know what? I should run for president. Think of it, my slogan could be ‘Lake for president: arson for all’”

I laugh. “Heck yeah, and I could be your vice president. Campaign slogan: I’m their voice of reason”

We laugh for a while, riffing off the concept to fill the time walking home from school. Until…

“Hey Jesse.”

I freeze, recognizing the voice behind me immediately. Shit. It’s _him_.

I prepare myself for the imminent confrontation. “Hey Troy”, I say, turning around to face my ex-friend.

He steps forward, towering over me. Look. Maybe I’m still intimidated by that guy.

“You fucking suck now. Hanging out with losers, cutting us off, always staying around that thing”, he says, gesturing towards Lake.

What an asshole. “You guys are jerks! That’s why I cut you off.”

He scoffs. “Fine. Keep hanging out with your girlfriend.”

Dramatically he leaves, crossing the street. Ok it was less dramatic and more dorky. But he’s scary so shhh.

“Well, that was just way wrong.”, I say. “First of all, for you to be my girlfriend, you’d have to be a girl. Second of all, we aren’t dating… Wait, we aren’t dating, right?”

“I don’t think we’re dating”, Lake replied.

I clap my hands together decisively. “Well then it’s decided! We aren’t dating!”

“Yep.”

We walk in silence for a bit.

Finally Lake said something. “Should we be dating? I mean, everyone thinks we are, so why not?”

“... Huh.” I pause. “Well… I never thought to date you. Like… I never had a crush on you? I definitely know what one feels like- not gonna lie, the reason I got mixed up in Troy’s crew is because I had a crush on one of the guys.”

They snort. “Disaster bi.”

“Shut up!!! But yeah, since I’m bi I _could_ have a crush on you, but I dunno… I never did? Like, when I met you I thought ‘Oh you’re scary but also cool?’ and then that morphed into us becoming tentative friends and then that morphed into us becoming actual friends and now we’re here and extremely closely bonded over shared traumatic experiences!”

“Yay trauma”, they reply, deadpan.

“But I mean… if you want to date me I guess I’d be down.”, I say shrugging. “Like I guess we could have a romantic relationship.”

“Hmmm… Now it’s my time to think.”, said Lake, recreating the “thinking” emoji with their face and hand. “I’m not… sure what a crush is like? When you spend the majority of your life copying someone’s every move and desperately trying to suppress your individuality, you don’t really think about things like that”

Ok. Not sure what to say to that. So I go for the ATLA reference. “That’s rough, buddy.”

Lake snorts and playfully pushes me. “Thanks for the support. But yeah… I don’t know? And I don’t really care. I guess it’s just other people who want us to date.”

“Yeah… to be honest, I tell people about you, or they see me and you, and they say ‘oh you guys have to be dating, people that close can’t be “just friends!”’. Honestly I’m pretty sure that even my parents think we’re gonna get together.”

“Damn. That sucks. How about we officially don’t date, and prove them wrong.”

“You know what yeah! Just because we’re close friends it doesn’t mean we have to be dating!!”

Lake smiles. “Hell yeah! And if people are confused about our relationship, then I guess we’re confusing bitches!”

I hold my hand up for a high-five. “Here’s to confusing bitches!”

Lake slaps my hand, and I realize this was a bad idea.

“Ow. Remind me to never high five you again”

Lake shrugs. “Can’t help being a stone cold bitch.”

“That pun doesn’t even work!”, I reply disgruntledly. “You’re made of metal, not stone.”

“Hey, let me have this! Unlike you, I’m not gifted in the art of making horrible jokes.”

“Was that supposed to be an insult? Because that was probably the most meaningful compliments I’ve ever gotten”

The rest of the walk home, I bombard Lake with the horrible jokes they so nicely complimented me on.

“Remind me to never say something that could be interpreted as nice about your jokes.”

“I’ll think about it.” I give a lovely shit eating grin.

Then I give a genuine, actually nice smile. “Y’know… this was a good conversation. It’s cool to kinda figure out what we are.”

“Yeah, you're right.”, they reply. “This was good.”

**Author's Note:**

> when lake said confusing bitches i was projecting. it's me, i'm confusing bitches 
> 
> (... just realized the "confusing" in that phrase could be interpreted as a verb, it's supposed to be a adjective)
> 
> anyways, jesslake is one of those ships that's very fine and understandable, but i like them better as friends— i love them having a very close relationship that seems like it's got to be romantic, but it isn't. "two people who could be attracted to each other but Aren't" solidarity. (also this could be interpreted as a qpr. not my headcannon for these two, but a good one)


End file.
